The Mysterious Case of the Bottlecap Balloon Brigade

“Hobby Club’s Missing Balloon Feared Shot Down By USAF” -Aviation Week

On February 16, 2023, after a week of confusion surrounding the three unidentified objects shot down over North America, Aviation Week published an article featuring the headline above. Intrigued by the possibility that a pico balloon was responsible for UFO hysteria and the scrambling of fighter jets involving two countries, I decided to look into it. The story goes, that a club of pico balloon enthusiasts called the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade (NIBBB) was possibly responsible for one of the unidentified objects shot down over Canada. Aviation Week reports-

“The club’s silver-coated, party-style, “pico balloon” reported its last position on Feb. 10 at 38,910 ft. off the west coast of Alaska, and a popular forecasting tool—the HYSPLIT model provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)—projected the cylindrically shaped object would be floating high over the central part of the Yukon Territory on Feb. 11. That is the same day a Lockheed Martin F-22 shot down an unidentified object of a similar description and altitude in the same general area.”

Fascinated to dig into this story, I quickly discovered a follow up article that was written by Politico later that evening. Politico reported “The Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade, in a blog post that was first reported by Aviation Week, says one of its balloons went “missing in action” in the same region the U.S. military shot down one of the three unknown objects,” adding almost nothing new to what was previously reported by Aviation Week. However, they did include a link to NIBBB’s blog post.

This is where things get interesting. But first, lets review some history about Aviation Week as it pertains to our favorite topic, UFOs…

Aviation Week and Phil Klass

Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine has a long history of reporting on UFO sightings and related topics, dating back to the 1940s and 1950s when there was a surge of interest in flying saucers and other unexplained aerial phenomena. However, the magazine's coverage of UFOs has been mixed, with some articles taking a skeptical or debunking approach, while others have been more open-minded.

Phil Klass, who worked as a senior editor for Aviation Week for many years, was one of the most prominent critics of the UFO topic and UFO researchers. He used his position at the magazine to write numerous articles and editorials that were critical of the claims made by UFO researchers and that sought to debunk many of the stories about UFO sightings and encounters. To the UFO community at the time, Phil Klass was the equivalent of a cocaine fueled, love child resulting from a copulation between Mick West and Steven Greenstreet. But don’t take my word for it. Let’s see what the UFO researchers at the time had to say.

1. Stanton Friedman once said of Klass, "Phil Klass was a skilled propagandist who had a knack for creating a catchy phrase or misleading sound bite that would generate headlines." -Top Secret/Majic: Operation Majestic-12 and the United States Government's UFO Cover-up" (1996), p. 88.

2. James E. McDonald, a physicist and UFO researcher, once wrote that Klass was "a debunker by avocation, and an airline industrialist by profession." -UFOs--The Greatest Scientific Problem of Our Time (1970), p. 51. (Replace airline industrialist with video game creator and you’d think he was talking about Mick)

3. Dr. J. Allen Hynek, a former Air Force consultant and UFO researcher, once referred to Klass as a "debunker with an axe to grind," and accused him of "ignoring or distorting evidence that didn't fit his preconceptions."-The UFO Experience: A Scientific Inquiry (1972), p. 57.

4. UFO researcher and author Jerome Clark once wrote that Klass was "a polemicist who mixed accurate reporting with misleading or incomplete accounts, characterized by snide humor, sneers, and a reluctance to concede any point to his opponents."-The UFO Book: Encyclopedia of the Extraterrestrial (1998), p. 294.

While Klass was perhaps the most vocal skeptic of the UFO topic at Aviation Week, he was not the only one. Other editors and writers at the magazine also took a critical view of UFOs and argued that there was no credible evidence to support the idea that aliens were visiting Earth.

Now that we know a little more about who first ran with the story that one of the objects shot down, let’s get into the mystery.

Where The Hell Is This Blog?

As mentioned above, Aviation Week and Politico stated the NIBBB may responsible for one of the objects shot down, with Politico linking an alleged blog from the group as circumstantial evidence. However, when I clicked on the link, it appeared their website was now defunct as this image is all that appears.

Ok. Strange. Perhaps they’re just a small website and getting a massive amount of traffic? Maybe, but we are now 10 days from their name first being made public and their website is still down.

How else can I find out more about this elusive group? Aha! Social media. They must have some sort of social media presence. Maybe even a puff piece written about them from a local newspaper? I’ll save you all the time and effort. Nope. Still can’t find anything. Oh man, I’m going to need some help.

The Gang Starts Digging

Enter Chase (@ChaseHoward97), Toby (@RDRIncident), Jared (@DaYarbo), Jenny (@Jenny_gomberg), Astral (@The_Astral_), and the shortest, but certainly not least Shane (@OldVetSymposium). Together, we felt there was something “fishy” to this story, and we were determined to find that week-old opened can of tuna. We start using the “way back machine” and looking up domain registrations. Toby, with the famous Roswell Daily Record, reaches out to Steve Trimble at Aviation week, who wrote their article on the NIBBB. Finally some information starts coming our way.

It appears the NIBBB website was registered a couple years ago by someone living in Ontario, Canada (hmmm, not too far from Northern Illinois, so not that suspicious). Over the last couple of years, the website did have activity, but it relatively seemed limited compared to the last few weeks. We were able to track down some names of the alleged group members, though, and Toby was able to reach out to one of them. (I am choosing to withhold their names though because I have not asked them for permission to be in my post.) Interestingly, the group member we reached out to retired from DOD a while back and has some very close connections at DNI. We also were able to find their final blog post before their website became defunct, and were rather surprised to read what it said.

Interesting……..lets look at that last part. “Any assertions or claims that our balloon was involved in that incident are not supported by facts.”

Huh. I didn’t expect that. Oh hey! Toby finally got an email back from the member of the NIBBB that he reached out to. Let see what it it says.

“No comment.”

Shit!

Alright. Well at least Steve at Aviation Week finally emailed back and will hopefully shed light on all of this, since you know, he was the one to actually talk to them…..right?…..Steve?……..Steve?! Are you freaking kidding me? You didn’t actually talk to this group either? Ohh, AND you agree this whole story is strange as well? How did you even find out about some obscure hobby balloon club’s blog in Northern Fricken Illinois?! Ah gotcha! Someone who allegedly knows of the group tipped you off. Sick…

Where Do We Go From Here?

At this point, I’m not sure what to make of this story. Pushing a story about a UFO being shot down actually being a weather balloon as part of a disinformation campaign? That’s too cliche. I’d hope someone would be more creative than that at least. I honestly don’t know though. I initially started out thinking this balloon group didn’t even exist and was completely made up to push such a conspiracy. Now I believe they are a real group. But why is their website down? Why was their last blog post trying to distance themselves far away from potential suspects? On one hand, maybe they’ve unwillingly become a patsy. A Lee Harvey Oswald for a true UFO. Aviation Week, with their malicious history towards this topic, might’ve received a convenient “tip” to look at the NIBBB from someone who wanted this unidentified object easily explained. On the other hand, maybe it’s much simpler. Aviation Week got an honest tip, from an honest citizen who was connected to the NIBBB. Members of the balloon group, fearing a hailstorm of government and media attention, decided to go quiet. We may never find the true answer, though, and this mystery will become lost and forgotten tomorrow, just as the thousands of other suspicious circumstances and details surrounding every other UFO event.